Bob Berney

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Summit Leads Indie Pack for 2009 with $455M Box Office Cume

By:
Nancy Tartaglione
Dec 30, 2009

Variety has outlined the bright lights in the indie sector for 2009 and lists Summit at the head of the field with $455 million in box office totals (excluding holdovers).
Lionsgate took in $396 million followed by the Weinstein Co. with $167 million for the year. Focus Features collected $144 million. Overture Films scored $143 million and Fox Searchlight scooped up $119 million.
The scaled-back Miramax earned nearly $40 million with Sony Pictures Classics tallying $36 million.
Bob Berney's new shingle Apparition has collected $15.4 million since its first release (Jane Campion's Bright Star) in the fall.
Meanwhile, notes Variety, smaller indie distributors like IFC Films and Magnolia had their most profitable years ever thanks to a combination releasing approach.
More details at Variety.
Story: http://power.networksolutions.com/index.html

Don't bet the house on Horton, says today’s Hollywood Reporter. Only an exceptional third-session hold by Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! would see it score a hat trick atop the box office and though none of the four wide openers this weekend appears to be a sure shot to hit No. 1, Sony's card-counting drama 21 is a strong lead candidate.
"We're certainly in the game to be No. 1 this weekend," Sony distribution president Rory Bruer told THR.
An opening somewhere in the mid-teen millions seems a safe proposition for 21, but a $20 million-plus opening isn't out of the question, says THR.
Rival execs believe Sony has a winning hand with 21, says Variety, and should be able to hit at least that number in millions of dollars.
Also bowing is superhero spoof Superhero Movie for a projected low- to midteen millions.
Iraq War drama Stop Loss will play in fewer than half as many venues as 21 and Superhero as prospects for the film appear grim, despite generally good reviews.
A debut of $4 million or more would be cause for joy. Paramount executives have done extensive research among prospective moviegoers about their attitude toward war films and subsequently are reining in even best-case scenarios accordingly.
Picturehouse held 110 sneak previews of its British comedy Run, Fat Boy, Run last weekend. "Early reviews have been a bit mixed, but patron word-of-mouth will be even more key in the film's playability over future frames," Picturehouse president Bob Berney told THR. "If we can get them in, it plays terrific."
Meanwhile, Horton is about to give Fox this year's first $100 million grosser, even though Variety notes that Hollywood is seeing solid rather than spectacular box office so far this year as the first quarter ends.
As of Wednesday, 2008 receipts hit $1.98 billion, or 3 percent above the same point last year, according to Rentrak. And a significant amount of this year's take has come from 2007 holdovers I Am Legend, Alvin and the Chipmunks, National Treasure: Book of Secrets and Juno.

Birthday boy Marc Anthony and his wife Jennifer Lopez are celebrating after their Hector Lavoe biopic became the subject of the biggest deal at this year's Toronto Film Festival in Canada late on Friday.
Anthony, who turned 38 on Saturday, plays the late salsa superstar in the acclaimed new movie El Cantante, which premiered in Toronto last week.
Lopez plays Lavoe's wife Puchi in the film, which was bought for almost $5 million by executives at Picturehouse, who now plan to release the film in July 2007.
Picturehouse spokesman Bob Berney says, "The Latino community is really an underserved market, but because of the music and the cast, we really think it can cross over."
Article Copyright Entertainment News Network All Rights Reserved.

Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ held on to the No. 1 position for the third week in a row, taking in a robust $31.1 million at the box office this weekend.
The Passion's closest competitor was The Secret Window, which was runner-up with $19 million. The Johnny Depp thriller was the best opening ever for a film based on a work from the master of suspense, Stephen King. It bumped The Green Mile, which took in $18 million when it debuted in December 1999, to second place, and relegated Dreamcatcher, which opened to $15 million in March 2003, to the No. 3 spot.
But Secret Window still proved no match for the monolithic The Passion of the Christ, which could, according to president of Newmarket Films Bob Berney, spark a religious-themed fad.
"It will probably start trends and everything but at the end of the day, the films have to be pretty spectacular," Berney said Saturday during the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas. "The audience, no matter what, is pretty discerning."
Berney said The Passion has passed 2002's sleeper hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which made $241 million, as the highest-grossing independent film, The Associated Press reports. The Passion's cumulative total to date is $264 million.
"The really interesting thing is that I think this shows that independent production and distribution can be at any level," Berney said. Newmarket's other recent success stories include Monster and Whale Rider.
This week, the Top 12 films grossed an estimated $104.1 million, up 14.59 percent from last week's $90.8 million, but down 20.75 percent from last year's $131.3 million.
Last year, Buena Vista's PG-13 rated comedy Bringing Down the House held on to the No. 1 spot in its second week with $22 million at 2,801 theaters with a $7,874 per theater average; MGM's PG rated teen spy flick Agent Cody Banks kicked off in second place with $14 million in 3,369 theaters with a $4,175 per theater average; and Paramount's R rated thriller The Hunted debuted in third with $13.8 million in 2,516 theaters with a $5,502 per theater average.
BOX OFFICE TOP 10, ESTIMATES (Source: Exhibitor Relations, Inc.)
No. 1: The Passion of the Christ (Newmarket, R)
Gross: $31.6 million (-41%)
Weeks opened: 3
Theaters: 3,221 (+51)
Per-theater average: $9,830
Cume to date: $264 million
No. 2: The Secret Window (Sony, PG-13)
Gross: $19 million
Weeks opened: NEW!
Theaters: 3,018
Per-theater average: $6,296
No. 3: Starsky &amp; Hutch (Warner Bros., PG-13)
Gross: $16 million (-43%)
Weeks opened: 2
Theaters: 3,185 (unchanged)
Per-theater average: $5,027
Cume to date: $51.4 million
No. 4: Hidalgo (Buena Vista, PG-13)
Gross: $11.7 million (-38%)
Weeks opened: 2
Theaters: 3,065 (+2 theaters)
Per-theater average: $3,817
Cume to date: $35.5 million
No. 5: Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (MGM, PG)
Gross: $8 million
Weeks opened: NEW!
Theaters: 2,973
Per-theater average: $2,691
No. 6: 50 First Dates (20th Century Fox, PG-13)
Gross: $5.3million (-31%)
Weeks opened: 5
Theaters: 2,586 (-454)
Per-theater average: $2,049
Cume to date: $106.5 million
No. 7: Twisted (Paramount Pictures, R)
Gross: $3 million (-40%)
Weeks opened: 3
Theaters: 2,208 (-496)
Per-theater average: $1,393
Cume to date: $21.1 million
No. 8: Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (Buena Vista, PG)
Gross: $2.4 million (-41%)
Weeks opened: 4
Theaters: 1,801 (-379)
Per-theater average: $1,333
Cume to date: $24.9 million
No. 9: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (New Line Cinema, PG-13)
Gross: $2 million (-33%)
Weeks opened: 12
Theaters: 1,307 (-596)
Per-theater average: $1,568
Cume to date: $371.1 million
No. 10: Spartan (Warner Bros., R)
Gross: $2 million
Weeks opened: NEW!
Theaters: 832
Per-theater average: $2,440
OTHER OPENINGS
Broken Wings (Sony Picture Classics, R)
Gross: $27,679
Weeks opened: NEW!
Theaters: 5
Per-theater average: $5,536